Summer Sensation Beach Music Festival was a 2 day music event in Sylvan Lake, AB in 2015 with acts like Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good, Dragonette, Hedley, Dear Rouge, Stars, The Dudes and more. I was recruited onboard as a planner, coordinator, photographer, marketer and designer.
First thing is first - planning. I put together a comprehensive and meticulous proposal from the variable logistics of street closures, emergency personnel, all through to marketing and promotions to set forth on the journey of countless Town Hall meetings and bureaucratic approval processes. Not for the faint of heart, one must keep moving forward.
After an arduous and lengthy vetting process, we got the nod of approval. Time to put the action on paper into action on land. At this point in the game, certain musicians are no longer available. Vendors and stage production companies are booked elsewhere. Inevitably, Murphy's Law kicks in - hard. But, you can't let that stop you. You roll with the punches, and keep redefining and refining the plan - much like a marketing plan, because there is no one size fits all.
You must remain flexible and open-minded. Dealing with this many logistics, something is bound to go awry at some pointI released musical acts one by one to build anticipation and keep our audience engaged. I designed share-worthy social media assets; through this and many giveaways, I utilized the audience as brand ambassadors. How you work around this, however, is the foundation to your success. Thankfully, I approach my work with the attitude and understanding that yes - there will be things that go wrong, and premeditate Plan B's, C's and D's to assure smooth sailing in the face of a 'crisis'. When things go beyond your control, keep planning. Keep refining. Keep working. It will come together, eventually.
I got to work on the website. I designed a logo. I coordinated sponsorship packages.
I created social media strategies to build hype. Months out, we slowly built anticipation and buzz around the event. As we slowly announced a new band that joined our lineup, I crafted riddles to give hints as to what the band was. This generated a ton of engagement and excitement. To generate more hype around the acts that were already announced, I asked the audience questions about the musician, inviting them to join in on the conversation, sparking curiosity among their friends and creating an open invitation to come check out the festival Facebook page. By engaging the audience, I created an audience engagement of 300% in one day. The Facebook page saw an increase of 'likes' climb up to nearly 3000 in just under a month - organically. No social media advertising dollars was spent, and the festival sold out.
Help Others While Helping Yourself.
My tasks didn’t stop at marketing and promotions. As a key member in planning, I was able to flex my creative and fast-thinking muscles with last-minute challenges like, “How do we deal with lack of parking and people wanting to party on a summers night, coming in from all over the province?” I proposed we offer shuttle bus service. Not only does this add another value-added service and helps alleviate a barrier to purchase, it also helps us with generating a bit more cash. We offered shuttle buses throughout the day/night from Red Deer to Sylvan to help soothe traffic woes while providing safe transportation to the city.
Now, with that many users with many, many different personality's, it is inevitable that some people are going to clash. Not everyone will be as excited as you are. Not everyone will be as friendly. As we all know - some users like to use social media as a way to vent. And that's totally alright, as long as they don't bring down the vibe for everyone else. So how do you deal with this? Kill them with kindness, remain professional and true to your brand personality, and address each person individually. Be responsive. You are not an entity; you are a human interacting with another human. You want their experience to be profound, so it starts with their interaction with you. Make them feel heard and valued. Such a public event needs meticulous and diplomatic 'damage control' measures in place.
Much like a customer service line, I addressed each individuals concern or questions with prompt, friendly responses. If I didn't have an answer myself, I sought out to find one, assuring an accurate and timely response to each and every individual, making them feel understood and satisfied. The Facebook page ended up being a way to communicate to our crowd live throughout the event.
There is always something that will provide a challenge along the way, and Summer Sensation was no exception. Our water trucks did not show up, meaning no water stations for our guests. So what did I do? I went out to the crowd myself and handed out bottles of water, later recruiting other team members to finish the execution throughout the day. This personal, beyond-the-scope service was memorable to guests, and a crisis was diverted indeed. I was able to make lemonade outta lemons, as this simple act increased our audiences perception of the event created some pretty wonderful word-of-mouth promotion and mentions all over social media.
Another thing is that - with that many people, everyone wants answers - and they want them now. I took notice to the most common questions that were being asked over and over. Work smarter, not harder, right? With this philosophy in mind, I designed an FAQ asset and posted it on the Facebook page. This generated plenty of shares, comments and likes - another low-cost way to spread the love and buzz about the event, and it made my job just a little bit easier! If someone had a question, users graciously referred them to the FAQ post, without any of my time.
At the end of the day, we hosted a sold out event with plenty of smiles and positive reviews - and without spending anything on social media advertising.